§11-1A-23. Confidentiality and disclosure of property tax returns
and return information; offenses; penalties.
(a) Secrecy of returns and return information. -- Property tax
returns and return information filed or supplied pursuant to this
article and articles three, four, five and six of this chapter and
information obtained by subpoena or subpoena duces tecum issued
under the provisions of this article shall be confidential and
except as authorized in this section, no officer or employee of the
State Tax Department, county assessors, county commissions and the
board of public works shall disclose any return or return
information obtained by him or her, including such return
information obtained by subpoena, in any manner in connection with
his or her service as such an officer, member or employee:
Provided, That nothing herein shall make confidential the itemized
description of the property listed, in order to ascertain that all
property subject to assessment has been subjected to appraisal:
Provided, however, That the commissioner and the assessors shall
withhold from public disclosure the specific description of burglar
alarms and other similar security systems held by any person,
stocks, bonds and other personal property held by a natural person,
except motor vehicles and other tangible property utilized
publicly, and shall withhold from public disclosure information
claimed by any taxpayer to constitute a trade secret or
confidential patent information: Provided further, That such
property descriptions withheld from public disclosure shall be subject to production and inspection in connection with any review,
protest or intervention in the appraisal or assessment process,
under such reasonable limitations as the board of review, board of
equalization and review or court shall require. The term officer
or employee includes a former officer, member or employee.

(b) Disclosure. -- (1) Information made confidential by
subsection (a) of this section shall be open to inspection by or
disclosure to officers, members and employees of the State Tax
Department, county assessors, county commissions, county sheriffs,
municipal financial officers and to members of the board of public
works whose official duties require such inspection or disclosures
for property tax administration purposes. Disclosure may be made
to persons, or officers or employees thereof, who are employed by
the state Tax Commissioner by contract or otherwise, provided such
person, or officer or employee thereof, shall be subject to the
provisions of this section as fully as if he or she was an officer
or employee of the State Tax Department. Information made
confidential by subsection (a) of this section shall be open to
inspection by the property owner providing such information and to
his or her duly authorized representative.

(2) Information made confidential by subsection (a) of this
section may be disclosed in a judicial or administrative proceeding
to collect or ascertain the amount of tax due, but only if: (i)
The taxpayer is a party to the proceedings or; (ii) such return
information directly relates to a transactional relationship between a person who is a party to the proceeding and the taxpayer
which directly affects the resolution of an issue in the
proceeding.

(c) Reciprocal exchange. -- The Tax Commissioner may permit
the proper officer of the United States, or the District of
Columbia, or any other state, or his or her authorized
representative, to inspect reports, declarations or returns filed
with the Tax Commissioner or may furnish to such officer or
representative a copy of any such document provided such other
jurisdiction grants substantially similar privileges to the Tax
Commissioner or to the Attorney General of this state.

(d) Penalties. -- Any officer, member or employee of the State
Tax Department, county assessors, county commissions, county
sheriffs, municipal financial officers and the board of public
works who violates this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor
and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than one
thousand dollars or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both,
together with the costs of prosecution.

(e) Limitations. -- Any person protected by the provisions of
this article may, in writing, waive the secrecy provision of this
section for such purpose and such period as he or she shall therein
state, and the officer with whom such waiver is filed, if he or she
so determines may thereupon release to designated recipients such
taxpayer's return or other particulars filed under the provisions
of the tax articles administered under the provisions of this article.

This section shall not be construed to prohibit the
publication or release of statistics so classified so as to prevent
the identification of particular reports and the items thereof nor
to prevent the publication and release of assessments and appraised
values of property.